A global view on the prevention of cardiovascular disease

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

15-Apr-2014

Contact: ESC Press Office press@escardio.org 0033-492-948-627 European Society of Cardiology

Sophia Antipolis, 15 April 2014. The United Nations and the World Health Organization pledged in 2011 to reduce premature mortality from non-communicable diseases - most notably cardiovascular diseases - by 25% by the year 2025. It's an ambitious target, reached with much controversy by UN members, and progress so far will be charted at this year's major congress on cardiovascular prevention, EuroPRevent 2014.

EuroPRevent 2014 will take place at the RAI Congress Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 8-10 May 2014.

The event promises to be the leading event of the year in preventive cardiology and we encourage you to mark the event in your news diaries. The scientific programme contains many new reports on a subject which is traditionally of great public interest.

The theme of this year's congress is "global cardiovascular health", and chairman of the Congress Programme Committee, Professor Johan de Sutter from AZ Maria Middelares Hospital in Ghent, Belgium, insists that the known modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular and other non-communicable disease are no longer confined to the affluent countries of the West.

"There are more cardiovascular deaths in India and China than in all developed countries together," says De Sutter. "The lessons learned in the West need to be blended with those factors now responsible for the steady rise of metabolic and cardiovascular disease around the globe. The dynamics of these disease patterns demand that we join forces to enter a new era of fight against the burden of cardiovascular disease on an unprecedented scale."

One session of EuroPRevent 2014 will review targets for the prevention of non-communicable diseases and the WHO's action plan for 2013-2020. Hosted by the Global Forum on CVD Prevention in clinical practice (a common platform for multiple organisations facilitated by the EACPR, a registered branch of the ESC), a session on 9 May (11.00-12.30) will offer an update report from Shanthi Mendis of the WHO, assess those prevention strategies which work for the rich and the poor, and focus on obesity as an emerging global challenge, particularly in children.

EACPR will be taking part in an initiative of the city of Amsterdam during the congress to highlight the risks of childhood obesity in local schools. "Jump In" will promote healthy diets and exercise in over 80 primary schools, where fruit will be served.

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A global view on the prevention of cardiovascular disease